Nor do I find in the New Testament any political Church form but the Universal headed by Christ and particular ones governed by Pastors The General is the constitutive Head of his Army and the Colonel of his Regiment and the Captain of his Troop as distinct subordinate Bodies but the Major General General of the Ordnance Quartermaster General c. may be only under Officers to the whole and the noblest integral parts but as such no constitutive Head of any Body of Men whatever So that General Pastors prove no superior proper Church But because it was lawful in prudence for the Apostles to have taken several Provinces limited severally to each so may men now and if any call such Churches I strive not so the matter be agreed on 8. I ever owned a Christian Kingdom and the agreeing Association of as many Churches as can for mutual help and concord and the King to be their Governor by the Sword And if any will call a Kingdom a Church or an Association that hath no constitutive Government a Church as if he called a Diet or Assembly of many Kings or Princes a Kingdom or Republick let him enjoy his Equivocation so we understand each other 9. According to these Principles I own my self a Member of the universal Church of the Church of England and of the Parish or particular Church where for the time I am called to be that is as they are But I think I may remove from Parish to Parish as I have cause as a dweller or a lodger may and I take not all the Parish to be the Church and take Parish bounds to be no Divine Institution but a humane mutable point of order convenient when by accident it crosseth not the end nor doth more harm than good 10. I think if any Nobleman in London confine his ordinary communion to a just assembly in his happel or any that have a Minister utterly unsuitable to their needs do usually hold communion in the next Parish Church for better he is thereby neither Separatist nor Sinner 11. According to all this when I was silenced I ordinarily heard Dr. Wilkins and Dr. Tillotson and communicated in several places as I had best opportunity and quickly going to Acton I there constantly morning and evening joyned at Common prayer and Sermon communicating in the Sacrament where I had best opportunity being loth for the Parson and Curates sâ—ke to tell you why it was not there once with Dr. Horton and often with Nonconformists The Plague driving me to Hambden I constantly there joyned in all the publick Worship and Sacrament Returning to Acton I did as before and sometime repeated Dean Rieve's Sermon till he got me sent to Gaol for teaching some willing ignorant people between the Church meetings in my house Thence going to Totteridge I many years constantly twice a day joyned in the publick worship and took the Sacrament when administred as Mr. Parre will testifie Thence removing to London and licensed by the King to preach I forbare some time and after chose only the Market house at St. James's openly declaring that we met not as separating from the publick Churches but for the need of multitudes that went to no Church for want of room Since then I have many years joyned in all the publick worship Word Prayer and Sacraments with the Parish Church when able since that I also sometime joyn with Nonconformists and preach my self Afternoons and on Thursdays in the Nonconformists Chappels being not allowed to do it otherwise In the Country in Summer I have far off got into some Parish Churches for a day and tryed neer London but could not have consent though I have Bishop Sheldon's License for that Diocess I think not yet invalidated This is the matter of fact Now Reader Qu. 1. Doth the tenth part of those counted of this Parish Church hear and communicate so oft as I do Q. 2. If not what makes them and not me to be of that Church Q. 3. What is the constancy that this Dr. maketh necessary to a member Q. 4. What are the parts of their worship which he saith I joyn not in Hath he named any Q. 5. Is this only occasional joyning Sect. 3. I do maintain that 1. When consideratis considerandis we may choose the purest Churches and most edifying Ministry it is a duty so to do And one of his answers the Rector c. hath in the Epistle cited his own words not out of the retracted Irenicon but his late Book against Popery expresly threatning us with damnation if we do not To which I find no excuse made by him yea the Papist adversary grants the same 2. I do maintain against those that separate from all Churches which they dare not be stated members of that its lawful to communicate occasionally where we may not do it statedly But is this to deny all save occasional communion with all their Churches 3. I often say that there is so great difference of Parish Ministers and of Persons cases and opportunities and Relations as Wives Children Servants under Parents c. of divers commands c. that to be constant Communicants in their Parish Church is to some a duty to some a sin and so is occasional communion Sect. 4. As to the second sort that hold all communion with them unlawful 1. I leave them to plead their own cause and I meddle only with my own part 2. But I must say that if they mistake those that wilfully give them the occasion are unfit reprovers of them And if men for worldly ends or by error will corrupt and defile a Church to the utmost that is consistent with lawful Communion or neer it they may make the question whether their Communion be lawful too hard for understandings Every one cannot tell whether one in a swoon be alive or dead and some may bury him too hastily Stretch not my similitude beyond my meaning If a Gentleman of the game should by wilful sin get the Lues Venerâ—â— and the case be disputed whether his wife may separate from him or if he beat her once a week if she will not daily eat that which makes her grievous sick and he doth it to exercise his Authority another may better plead against her departure than he If it be a fault in her so to save her self what is it in him to destroy or abuse her If we be forbidden to take poyson and one will causelesly command us to take a doubtful thing as Nightshade Hemlock Aâ—ripigmentum c. and then condemn us as disobedient for refusing he is the unfittest person to condemn us If it be lawful to avoid a house that hath the Plague a man is excusable that mistakes the spotted Fever for it Were your Congregations but full of persons that had the scabs of the small Pox not dryed away and one went to a sounder Congregation for fear of infection not at all condemning you he might be born with
1. The Eunuch baptized in his Travails Acts. 9 was only a Member of the Church Universal 2. Those that were converted by Frumentius and Edesius when there was no particular Church And all that are first converted in any Infidel or Heathen Land before any Church be formed 3. Those that by Shipwrack are cast on heathen Countries where no Churches are 4. Travellers that go from Country to Countries as Lythgow did nineteen years and others many And I think he unhappily named Jerusalem where Travellers come that are of no fixed Church unless he in that also be a Superindependant and think that men may be many years Members of a Church many hundred miles off which they have no personal communion with 5. Merchants and Factors who are called to dwell long among Infidels where are no Churches 6. Embassadors who by their Princes are sent to reside among such much of their lives 7. Wanderers that have no fixed habitations as many Pedlers and other poor wandering Tradesmen and loose Beggars that have no Dwelling 8. Those thot live among Papists or any other Christians who impose some sin as a condition of communion 9. Those that live among such Christians as have no true Pastors who are constitutive parts of particular Churches Some being incapable through insufficiency some by Heresie and some for want of a true Call Such as by Mr Dodwells Doctrine most of the Christian World are for want of uninterrupted rrue Episcopal Ordination 10. Those who are subjects to such as permit them not to be fixed Members As Wives hindred by Husbands Children by Parents and some Subjects violently hindred by Princes who yet allow them transient Communion And verily a man would think by the writings of many Conformists that they took it for a Duty to obey a Prince in such a case 11. Those who live where Church-corruptions are not so great as to make transient Communion unlawful but so great as to make fixed communion seem to be a culpable consent If I come in travel to a Church of Strangers I am not bound to examine what their Discipline is what their Lives be or how their Pastors are called But where I am fixed I am more bound to know these and if I find them exclude Discipline live wickedly and have unlawful Pastors I may in some cases be a partaker of the sin if I fix among them 12. They that live in a time and place of Schism and distraction striving who shall prevail and condemning each other all following several Factions and needing Reconcilers It may for a time become in prudence the duty of peace-makers to own no Faction nor to be more of one Church than of another while he seeth that it will do more hurt than good And those that wait in hope as the Nonconformists now do to see whether their Rulers will restore them to reformed Parish Churches may at once in prudence find it needful neither to fix as Members in some Parish Churches till reformed in the Teachers at least nor to seem to be Separatists by gathering new Churches In none of all these cases is a man unchristened nor schismatical for being no fixed member of any Church besides the Universal And as it is the ill hap of these men commonly to strike themselves I doubt they will prove Grotius himself no Christian by this Rule who for many years before he died they say joyned with no particular Church as a fixed member And I know not well what particular Church they make the King a Member of Sect. 2. To his Questions Pag. 3. Were we not Baptized into this Church and do you not Renounce Membership This is scarce a civility I answer 1. This Church which Church do you mean I was not Baptized into St. Giles's nor St. Andrew's Parish Church but into one above an hundred miles off and yet my removal made me no culpable Separatist Or doth he mean This Diocesan Church No I was Baptized in the Diocess of Lichfield Doth he mean This National Church as it is supposed a political body constituted of the Ecclesiastical Governing and Governed Parts he saith there is no such Church of England but that It inferreth Popery to assert such But if he equivocate here and mean not by a Church as in the rest but either a christian Kingdom or an agreeing Association of many Churches I am still a fixed member of such a Kingdom and of such an Association in all things necessary to Churches and Christian Communion 2. But Baptism as such entred me only into the Universal Church much less did it fix me in any other I was Baptized where I was to stay but a little while And this phrase of being Baptized into our Church is to me of ill sound or intimation Bellarmine saith that all that are baptized are interpretatively thereby engaged to the Pope I was baptized in a Parish and in a Diocess and in a Christian Kingdom but not so into them as to be obliged to continue under that Priest or Bishop or in that Kingdom And my Baptism I hope did not oblige me to every Canon Ceremony Form or Sin of the associated Churches in England abusively by him called one Church 3. And unhappily it is not meer Independancy that he is still pleading for but some extremes which the moderate Independants disclaim viz. That a member of their Churches is so tyed to them that they may not remove to another without their consent And am I so tyed to what to Parochial or to the Diocesan or to the association of English Churches If it had been to the Species I would fain know whether their things called by them Indifferents specifie them Sect. 3. P. 111 112. He yet more pleads as for Separation why then above once or twice why should I so countenance defective Worship and not rather reprove it by total forbearance of Communion c. Answ My Reasons I told him because the accidents may continue which made it a Duty but I cannot hinder others from yielding to his arguments Let him make his best of them Only I must tell him yet 1. that if he lay his cause on this that their Parochial or Diocesan Churches are not defective 2. Or that the defects cannot by others be avoided he will quite marr his matter and undo all by overdoing 3. And if he indeed think that all defective Churches must be forsaken he will be one of the greatest Schismaticks in the World But who can reconcile this with the scope of his whole Book Sect. 4. P. 112. He saith Here are no bounds set to peoples Fancies of purer Administrations Answ Have I so oft and copiously named the bounds and now is the answer Here are none Are there none in all the same Books he citeth 2. Scripture is their bounds as he well openeth in his desence of Biâ—hop Laud. Sect. 5. P. 114. He complains of my leaving out the best part of his argument viz. The people may go
execution of it on others or the person in foro externo But still the Church hath done her part in Legislation to oblige as aforesaid § 6. He saith Persons excommunicate are to be denounced so every six months that others may have notice of them Answ 1. But are they not excommunicate then before they are so oft denounced yea or at all as far as aforesaid § 7. He saith I have fully answered my own Objection by saying I am not bound to execute the sentence on my self Answ 1. He would not say that he approveth the answer For if he do he confuteth himself that would have us execute the silencing sentence on our selves and the sentence against publick worship in any way but theirs 2. My reason is because I take the unjust sentence as invalid else I were bound in foro interiore 3. But sure the Church at least relaxeth that mans obligation to present Communion by shewing her will if she did not oblige him to withdraw Read over the words of the Canon and see whether they make them not as unintelligible and flexible to what sense they please as they do the words of the Act of Uniformity and Liturgy § 8. As to his two cases in which the excommunicate may be schismaticks for not communicating 1. We question not the first Just excommunication excludeth none but the guilty Here then indeed is the state of our Controversie Had he proved that in all the cases before cited it is just to excommunicate us he had done somewhat when now for want of it he betrayeth his cause 2. His 2d is If they form new Churches Answ 1. Is forming new Churches and not communicating with the old ones all one Our present question is of the later So that this great Accuser seemeth plainly to absolve all from being bound to Communicate with them who are unjustly excommunicate and gather not new Churches 2. But may not the unjustly excommunicate that cannot on just terms be restored worship God in some publick Church Doth such a wicked sentence bind men to live like Atheists till death or deprive them of their right to all God's Ordinances even many Papist Doctors and Councils say the contrary And how else do you justifie the Church of England against the Papists charge of Schism § 9. p. 372. He still seemeth to think that His own and others reasonings may change all the truly honest Christians in the Land to hold all the things imposed lawful Answ These thoughts of the Bishops in 1660. and 1661. have brought us all to the pass that we are at And if after 20 years so great experience of the inefficacy of all their Disputes yea and Prisons and after the notice of the nature and different cases of men they still trust to bring us to Concord on these terms disputing with such men is in vain The Lord deliver us from them CHAP. XII Of the English sort of Sponsors and the exclusion of Parents duty § 1. PAge 380. He saith I several times mention this as one of the grounds of the unlawfulness of the peoples joyning in Communion with us yea as the greatest objection Answ Four places of my writings are cited and all will testifie to him that will read them the untruth of the Doctors words This is an unhappy course of accusations I can find no word of The unlawfulness of the peoples joyning in Communion with you on this ground On the contrary I have taught men how to make this very action in them lawful viz. By getting if possible credible Sponsors of the old sort and agreeing with them to be the Parents Representer and promise as in his name or at least but as his second undertaking the Education of the Child if he die or apostatize which was the old sort and himself to be present and signifie his consent by gesture though he may not speak But I have shewed 1. That this must be done besides the Churches order that hath no such thing 2. That subscribing to the Churches order herein is unlawful 3. That the Church which refuseth the Child lawfully offered ought not to blame that person that cannot or will not make such shifts but getteth another Pastor to Baptize him whom they sinfully refuse But this is not to prove it unlawful to have Communion with you But it 's lawful to use better also when they can being thus repulsed by you § 2. He saith The Parents are to provide such as are fit to under take that office Answ 1. No one is fit for it as used by the Liturgy but an Adopter that taketh the Child for his own For he undertaketh the Parents work And it 's lis sub judice whether any others undertaking besides a Parent or Owner can prove the Child to be in the Covenant as offered and have right to the seal and benefits Atheists and Insidels Children are unholy 1 Cor. 7. 14. 2. If any were sit few Parents can get such as will understandingly and deliberately and credibly promise them to do all that Godfathers must by the Liturgy undertake I never knew one in my life that seemed to the Parent to mean any such thing much less to do it I have in my younger time been Godfather to three or four But we before agreed with the Parents to intend no more than to be Witnesses and the Father to be the Entitler and the undertaker I did in 1640. Baptize two by the Liturgy without Crossing and never more in 6. or 7. years after because of the imposed corruptions Mr. Kettilby the Bookseller unless his Father had another Child of the same name baptized the same year was one But his Father gave him his name and promised all his own duty and his Uncle and Aunt standing as Sponsors we before agreed that they should signifie but Witnesses and friendly helpers in case of need 2. But what if the Parents are bid provide such that is no discharge of their own part nor are they bound to cast their duty on others § 3. He saith as to the Child 's Right to Baptism that the Godfathers stand in a threefold capacity 1. Representing the Parent in offering 2. Representing the Child in promising 3. In their own as undertakers of his education c. Answ 1. I will not till he confute them repeat my proofs that in the Church of England's sence the Godfathers are not the Parents representatives at all nor speak in their name 2. If they were then when the Parents both are Atheists Infidels Hobbists scorners at Godliness Hereticks the Godfathers can represent them but as they are and their own faith entitleth not the Child because they stand in the persons of Atheists Infidels c. your Church doth not like this doctrine 3. And as to their representing the Child quo jure is the doubt It cannot be done without some representing power given them And who gave it them 4. And as to the third Person in this multiform
With these and such others Truth is not tollerable he raileth that confuteth them and doth Auriculas molles mordaci radere vero I profess I felt so little passion in writing that book which he saith was written in one continued Passion that I think verily I sinned all the while for want of a livelier sense of the sin and hurt which I was detecting by my confutation But I confess it is my opinion that Falshood of Speech may lie in describing a thing short of Truth as well as in going beyond it And that the Truth of words is their Agreeableness to the matter and mind And that verba rebus aptanda sunt And that he that writeth against sin must call it sin and open the evil of it § 5. His Preface giveth us hopes that we are so farr agreed in our ends as to be both for God for truth for unity and peace and Love and against Popery and one would think this much should go far towards our Concord But alas all agree not what Piety is or what Popery is nor of the way to our ends If he think that to be against Spiritual Prayer would help us against Popery 1. I would he would tell us which way If by reducing the Nonconformists to think Formes lawful so do the Jesuites And he told us that they at Franckford took a Forme from Geneva as useful And the present Nonconformists put their judgment out of question an 1660 and 1661. In their witings offers and Formes Printed But all that are for Formes are not for all things in your Formes 2. And I would he would have better told us what the Spiritual Prayer is which the Jesuits first brought in and helpes in Popery For hitherto it is the Dead Ceremonious formality and Imagery of Popery destroying Spirituality by words not understood Mummeries Beads Canting Stage workes which hath alienated most Religious Protestants from them I will 1. Tell you what I take Spiritual Prayer to be and then 2. Desire his judgment of it 1. It is my judgment if he know it to be erroneous I crave his reasons 1. That Mans Soul is by sin so depraved that it is morally unable without Gods Spirit effectually to know feel and desire deliverance from his own sin and misery and to desire Gods Grace and Glory above all worldly sinful pleasures 2. That therefore such desires in act and habit must be wrought in us by the Spirit of God And the whole work of Regeneration and Sanctification is a giving to the Soul that new Divine nature Love and delight which worketh by such holy desires And that as the carnal mind is enmity to God and cannot be subject to his Law and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his so to be Spiritually minded is life and peace and God who is a Spirit will be worshiped in Spirit and truth and by this we know that we are the Children of God by the Spirit which he hath given us For he promised to pour out the Spirit of Grace and supplication And because we are sons he hath given us the Spirit of his Son by which we cry Abba Father And this Spirit helpeth our Infirmities in Prayer If these things be in the Papists Bible I hope they are not therefore Popery I suppose the Papists also own our God our Saviour and our Creed 3. The help in Prayer which we expect from the Spirit is 1. To illuminate us to know what we need and should desire and ask 2. To kindle in us holy desires sincere and servent of what we should ask 3. To give us a true belief of and trust in the Love of God the entercession of Christ and the promises of the Gospel that we may pray in hope 4. To give us thankful hearts for what we do receive and fit with joy to praise the giver 5. To stir up all these dispositions to particular acts in the due season And to save us from the contrary 6. And we believe that a mind so illuminated and affections so sanctified and kindled have a great advantage above others coeteris paribus to express themselves in words For. 1. A man that knoweth what to say can speak it when the ignorant cannot Doth not a stock of knowledge enable you to Preach without book 2. Such a Soul will set it self diligently to think what and how to speak in so great a business when the careless mind it not 3. Love and delight are very speedy Learners 4. Fervent desire sets all the powers of the Soul awork and is full and forward to express it self Hunger can teach men easily to beg Poor men speak intreaties Anger Joy every passion maketh and powreth out words where there is prerequisite ability 4. We believe that he who by natural defectiveness or difuse cannot find words fitly to utter his own mind may have the help of Gods Spirit in uttering such words as he readeth or learneth of others and especially in the case of Psalms which are not of sudden invention if for Concord the Churches agree to use the same meet words Gods Spirit may actuate their desires therein 5. We hold that this Holy Spirit is as Tertullian speaketh Christs Vicar Agent or Advocate by preventing operateing Cooperating grace thus to illuminate Sanctifie and actuate believers in all holy works and especially in prayer And I could heartily wish that you would not be against so much as Spiritual Preaching Spiritual Writing and disputing and living and not say that the Jesuits brought them in 6. I believe that we are Baptized into the name of the Holy Ghost as well as of the Father and the Son believing that he is thus Christs Agent for all this work upon our Souls and covenanting to obey him 7. I believe that sins against the Holy Ghost especially deriding or reproaching his great works miraculous or Sanctifing have a dangerous malignity 8. I suppose that in all this the faculties of mans own Soul are the natural recipients of the Spirits influx and agent of the act which both causes effect And that it s as vain a question whether it be by the Spirit or by natural faculties that we pray aright as whether it be God as fons naturae or mans natural powers which cause our natural acts Or whether the Act of seeing be from the sun or the eye As if the same effect might not yea must not have a Suprior and Inferior Cause 9. Therefore as Gods Spirit witnessing with ours that we are his Children so Gods Spirit helping our infirmities in Prayer suspendeth not the exercise of our Spirits or maketh our reason and consideration needless but actuateth them in their duty Learning and studying how to pray is consistent with the Spirits help in Prayer 10 I never talkt of it with any Nonconformists who denyed that an hypocrite may without any special help of the Spirit speak all the same words in prayer without either book
mind by citing four of their Books against Brownists and were four or forty times four all But Mr. Rathbands is said to be the Nonconformists Doth he believe that he meant that all or the twentieth part of the Nonconformists wrote or subscribed it One of the Names to it is Mr. Simeon Ash my intimate dear friend whose judgment in these matters was the same with mine whom I was with even in his sickness almost to the last hour of his life and was buryed Aug. 23. 1662. the day before the Law had else silenced him and he was to me a better Expositor of his own mind than the Dr. can be He was so much for going on to preach that his Motto in his Funeral Ring was I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ I yet keep my Ring and can shew it you And as to old Mr. Langley another of them I heard him my self preach in Albriton Church in Shropshire a Thanksgiving Sermon for the hopes of deliverance from the silencing Bishops when the Law forbad him And for old Mr. Slater I heard him preach at Trinity Church in Coventry when the Law forbad him And did they not understand their own Writings better than the Dr. doth Sect. 23. And I would I knew how to prevail with him to tell me whether the Law and Canon did not forbid all the Ministers in England to worship God according to the Directory and neglect the Common Prayer Book which yet almost all did for many years in the times of usurpation And yet of nine thousand or more of these seven thousand since conformed to the Church of England and they say that this Dr. is one of them If mere disobedience then be the sin all these lived so long in sin and he with others Sect. 24. But all that can be gathered out of the four Books â—â—â—ed and such others is but this which is our judgment 1. That Churches and Pastors are under the Kings Government as well as other Subjects 2. That it belongeth to him to punish them for evil doing and encourage them in doing well 3. That as to this his own execution he is the publick Judge whether they do well or ill 4. That if he justly forbid any to preach or assemble he must be obeyed 5. And if he mistake in particular cases not destroying the ends of his Government the common good he must not be resisted nor in such a manner disobeyed as tendeth more to the common hurt than his mistake doth nor disabled to Govern by their dishonouring him much less by Rebellion or Confusion 6. Nor are men bound to cast away their great advantages for Gods service which they then had on pretence of doing better when by accident it would do more hurt than good nor as Bradshaw saith to run on the Sword or oppose Sword to Sword or raise Sedition and ruin themselves in vain Their advantages were many 1. Lawful Communion in the Parish Churches 2. Most of them either constantly or by sits had publick Churches or Chappels to preach in and were still in hope 3. The Magistrate protected them and the Reformation 4. They hoped for a progress of it whereas had they openly done as the Brownists they had endangered the Reformation by the exasperation and ruined themselves and lost most of their labour So that it is plain that preaching in that imprudent manner which is like to do more harm than good they took to be a double sin as hurtful and as disobedience for obedience is due in such a case But in case the manner and circumstances be such as that these evils are not consequent but more good than hurt to be expected they thought the bare breach of the Law no sin Sect. 25. Which I yet further prove 1. Because it s agreed by all that Governing Order is a medium for the thing ordered and never obligeth when it overthroweth the end power being given to Edification and not to Destruction None have power to forbid the necessary preaching of the Gospel and probably to damn Souls 2. Because else the Nonconformists should be more against preaching when forbidden than the Conformists who say as Bishop Bilson We must go on with our work suffer and as Bishop Andrews Tortur Torti Cohibeat Regem Diaconus c. 3. Yea the Papists who on pretence of Obedience are tyrannical yet mostly agree as I have elsewhere proved that humane Laws bind not beyond the case of scandal when they are against the common good And a Toletane Council decreed that their Constitutions should not be taken to bind ad pâ—câ—atum to hazard Souls but only ad poenam 4. As I have said their own practice fully expounded their words who constantly broke the Law and Canon in preaching in Houses and in Chappels without or contrary to the Liturgy or a part of it So did Mr. Ball at Whitemore Mr. Hind at Banbury Mr. Geree and Mr. Fox at Tewksbury John Rogers at Dedham Mr. Taylor Mr. Harvy Mr. Bourne at Manchester Mr. Gee Mr. Johnson Mr. Hancock Mr. Barlow Mr. Broxholme Mr. Cooper and abundance more besides those mentioned before And now I leave it to the Dr.'s further thoughts whether he spake truly of the sence of All the Nonconformists and have proved what he undertook To abuse the Magistrate or do his part for publick Reformation they were against and so are we Sect. 26. As to his question Was there less necessity then or now I answer 1. There was then more necessity as there is of you or me in America where we cannot preach the people lately Papists desired not their helps nor scrupled hearing others as many thousands do now 2. There was necessity then and so there is now but opportunity must joyn with necessity to oblige which they had more than we by connivence in Chappels where was necessity and they had less than we in other places Sect. 27. As to the Answers of Mr. Sprint on my knowledge the usual answer was That evil must not be done that we may have leave to do good and that if others hinder me because I will not sin it is not my omission of any duty yet the disparity of the Apostles case and ours may be mentioned to shew the difference of obligations Positive Precepts bind not ad semper but Negatives do and it s too gross a shift to turn a Negative to a Positive and then pretend that the comparison is between two duties preaching is a duty when we can do it but not when we cannot do it unless we will swear subscribe profess or practise a forbidden thing Sect. 28. I conjecture that to what I have proved of the practice of the Nonconformists it will be said that Their preaching in peculiar places Chappels or Churches though in a manner against Law and Canon was but a partial joyning with the Church of England and not a separation and the connivence of the Bishops was a kind of Toleration Answ 1. And
is not my case the same We had more than connivence when we had the Kings Licenses and ever since experience tells you that his Clemency hath occasioned a restraint of the Bishops and some connivence from them 2. And if it were the Temples that make the difference let them allow us to preach there and see whether we will refuse it And sure the Conformists that preach in Tabernacles are not Separatists the Parish Teacher of St. Martins now preacheth in the same place which I built to have preached in and for so doing was by a warrant judged to prison They had no more Law on their side than I have they usually read no more of the Liturgy but the Confession and the Scriptures and many not the first at all and some more so that its a full proof that if breaking the Law had been all their stop they would have still preached Sect. 29. Dr. Ames tells us that he had preached without the Bishops consent by this Story fresh Suit p. 409. describing an English Bishops Pastoral work he saith It would be ridiculous for a mean man to desire him to visit him his Wife or Children in sickness he must have a Chaplain not only to do other duties of Religion for him but even to give thanks at his Table I will not here speak of draw up an Excommunication for him take him Pursuivant Jaylor see to your Prisoner but note one example of mine own experience which many others can parallel I was once and but once I thank God before a Bishop and being presented to him by the chief Magistrates of a Corporation to be Preacher in their Town the lowly man first asked them how they durst choose a Preacher without his consent You said he are to receive a Preacher that I appoint you for I am your Pastor though he never fed them And then turning to me How durst you said he Preach in my Diocess without my leave So that without any other reason but meer Lordship the whole Corporation and I were dismissed to wait his leisure which I have done now twenty years and more Much like the usage of holy Paul Bayne Successor to Perkins who being commanded to preach a Visitation Sermon and being sickly and in a sweat with preaching was fain to refresh himself instead of going presently to attend the Bishop and when he was sent for having small Cuffs edged with a little blew thred saith the Bishop How dare you appear before me with those and he suspended him And good Mr. Bayne would never more have to do with a Bishop but said They are an earthly Generation and savour not the things of God When Dr. Fulke a half Conformist went out of St. Johns Colledge in Cambridge with his Pupils hiring Chambers for himself and them in the Town it was as great a separation from the Colledge to avoid the Surplice which he after submitted to as we make from the Church See Ames fresh suit p. 473. And that it was no conscience of obeying the Bishop that Beza would have the Ministers moved by from assembling Judge by these words De notis Eccles Ego pontificiis I willingly leave to the Papists the whole degree of Episcopacy of which I openly say the Holy Ghost was not the Author but humane prudence which if we observe not that God hath cursed certainly we even yet see nothing and we nourish a viper in our bosoms which will again kill the Mother Sect. 30. I will conclude with the recital of the Letter sent to the Bishops by Dr. Humphrey Regius Professor in Oxford who yet constrained used the Surplice after that Our Dr. may note what sence they had then of these things premising only the words of John Fox speaking of Blumfield a wicked Persecutor who threatned a godly man Simon Harelson for not wearing the Surplice Its pity saith he such baits of Popery are left to the enemies to take Christians in God take them away from us or us from them for God knoweth they be the cause of much blindness and strife among men Dr. HUMPHREY'S Letter to the BISHOPS YOur Lordships Letter directed unto us by our Vice-Chancellor although written in general words yet hath so hearted our Adversaries that we are now no more counted Brethren and Friends but Enemies and â—ith the old Mass attires be so straitly commanded the Mass it self is shortly looked for A Sword now is put into the enemies hands of these that under Q Mary have drawn it for Popery and under pretence of good order are ready without cause to bewreck their Popish anger upon us who in this will use extremity in other laws of more importance partiality I would have wished my Lords rather privy admonition than open expulsion yea I had rather have received wounds of my Brother than kisses of mine Enemy if we had privily in a convenient day resigned then neither should the punisher have been noted of cruelty neither the offender of temerity neither should the Papists have accused in their seditious Book Protestants of contention Religion requireth naked Christ to be preached professed glorified that graviora legis by the faithful Ministry of feeding Pastors should be furthered and after that orders tending to edification and not to destruction advanced and finally the Spouses friends should by all means be cherished favoured and defended and not by counterfeit and false intruders condemned and overborn and defaced But alas a man qualified with inward gifts for lack of outward shews is punished and a man only outwardly conformable and inwardly clean unfurnished is let alone yea exalted The painful Preacher for his labour is beaten the unpreaching Prelate offending in the greater is shotfree the learned man without his cap is afflicted the capped man without learning is not touched Is not this directly to break Gods laws Is not this the Pharises vae Is not this to waâ—â— the outside of the Cup and leave the inner part uncleansed Is not this to prefer Mint and Annis to faith aud judgment and mercy Mans tradition before the ordinance of God Is not this in the School of Christ and in the method of the Gospel a plain disorder hath not this preposterous order a woe That the Catechism should be read is the word of God it is the order of the Church to preach is a necessary point of a Priest to make quarterly Sermons is law to see poor men of the poor mens box relieved Vagabonds punished Parishes communicate Rood lofts pull'd down Monuments of Superstition defaced Service done and heard is Scripture is Statute that the Oath to the Q Majesty should be offered and taken is required as well by ordinance of God as of man These are plain matters necessary Christian and profitable To wear a Surplice a Coap or a corner'd Cap is as you take it an accidental thing a device only of man and as we say a doubt or question in divinity Sith now these substantial points